Entertaining Motorcycles Story

Over the last four years of full timing, Dave and I have been workampers. Workamping is when a full timer will volunteer for a designated number of hours per week in exchange for a free site, usually with all services included for free (electric, water and sewer). Some workamping experiences offer a salary. Also see: Workamper News

Dave and I have volunteered for the US Army Corp of Engineers (USACE), state parks and nonprofits in exchange for a free campground site. Nothing is perfect, but most of our experiences have been absolutely wonderful! We have met some wonderful people and made some really good friends along the way. USACE Civil Works Recreation

We have experienced many humorous and entertaining stories throughout our workamping. Along the way, we will be sharing many of them with you. One of our favorites is “Motorcycles”. Also see our blog: The Funny Story of The Funnels

Motorcycles

One very hot summer Sunday afternoon the park was full of boaters, people fishing, people having picnics with their families and people relaxing on the beach. Dave and I were out doing our routine “patrols” in the upper picnic area when we heard VERY LOUD MOTORCYCLES coming down the road into the park. We have been bike riders and could tell from the noise what type of motorcycles they were. We were excited to see how they had dressed out their rides.

We were open mouthed when the three bikers screamed on their VERY LOUD MOTORCYCLES:

• down the main road
• through the boat launch parking lot
• through the opening in the parking lot wooden fence
• across a grassy field the size of two football fields
• through the lower covered picnic table area
• past the beach
• over to the covered picnic table at the far edge of the park.

Dave and I looked at each other in surprise. They had screamed past at least 2 “no trespassing” signs and 4 signs that said “this area closed”.

We could feel the eyes of visitors to the park looking at us. One family we were talking with at the time verbalized what we are sure everyone was thinking, “They can’t do that! What are you going to do about it?”

We looked at each other and got back into the UTV to head over to where they had parked their bikes.

We already knew the rangers were not available. We had called them earlier about bringing over some more gas for the UTV, and they said it wouldn’t be possible to come over for a while. They were dealing with problems at another park.

We also knew it was highly dangerous for visitors of the park for the motorcycles to be driving at a high rate of speed through the part of the park that did not allow motorized vehicles (except us!). There were upwards of 50 young children running around in the field between the boat launch parking lot and beach.

So here we are, two “senior citizens”, in a UTV with VOLUNTEER written in 10” letters on the side and VOLUNTEER written in 5” letters on the back of our t-shirts. We didn’t look like anyone who had authority to tell ANYONE what to do. But there we were.

There were 6 people on 3 bikes. As we drove over to them, we got a look clearly letting us know we were not welcome in “their” area. Of course, THAT didn’t stop us.

First Intervention

We stopped near them and said, “Hi, how’s it going?” One man stepped forward and in a menacing growl said, “What’s the problem?”

In a quiet, low, calm tone of voice, I said, “We were just concerned you might not know this is a restricted area. Because of all of the kids around the park motorized vehicles aren’t allowed down here. You know how kids are, they just don’t pay attention.” Dave and I have learned a long time ago, that men do not like to be confronted by another man, especially a man who is 6’6” tall. Testosterone starts to take over. Plus, when I was working as a clinical social worker, the primary population I worked with was angry, violent, aggressive men. I had 40 years of learning how to diffuse tense situations.

The “leader” glared at me, then at Dave and then back to me. He said, “We are just blowing up our floaties, then we will move.” They had a couple floaty toys for the beach and what they said looked legitimate.

I said, “Okay, we will be just around this area for a bit. You can park at that parking area over there. It will be faster for you to get to, and you don’t have to go back across the big field.”

The “leader” gave a dismissing hand gesture and as he was turning around said something like, “Whatever.” Dave said, “Have a good afternoon,” and we left. We went over and talked to some of the other visitors in the picnic area and around the beach.

We wanted to assure the park visitors in the area that everything was under control. And we wanted to keep track of what the bikers were doing. We wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt. And as Ronald Reagan said, trust but verify.

Eventually they had blown up their floaty toys and the 3 men moved their motorcycles to the beach parking lot. They walked back down to the picnic area. They knew we had been watching them and when we waved our thanks, there was no response from them.

We continued our patrol around the park. We ended up at the beach parking lot. We noticed one of the bikers had left their headlight on when they moved to the beach parking lot. Clearly there would be a dead battery problem when they tried to leave later.

Second Intervention

We drove back down to where the bikers were. If we had been unwelcome before, they were even LESS happy to see us this time. You could tell by the look on their faces that they thought we were just coming back to harass them. And their look made it clear that under no uncertain terms were they going to be told to do ONE MORE THING by 2 senior citizen volunteers!

When we got close, Dave stopped the UTV. Dave asked, “Do one of you guys have a blue bike?” The “leader” and one of the other men exchanged looks and the “other man” said, “Yes, I have a blue bike.”

Dave said, “Oh good. We wanted to let you know you left your head light on.” The two men looked at each other again, and then the blue bike owner said, “Thanks! I appreciate it.” He turned and started walking back up to the beach parking lot.

The “leader” said, “Thanks.” And we left.

This all could have gone much differently if Dave or I had been confrontational. If Dave had gotten out of the UTV it might have seemed like a threatening move to the “leader”. We helped the men save face with their riders by saying “Maybe you didn’t know….” instead of saying “What is wrong with you? Didn’t you see all those signs saying stay out?”

Take-away Point

My Dad always used to say you can catch more flies with honey than you can with vinegar. We found this to be so true when working with the public! We figured out how to use lightheartedness to get people to comply with park rules without a confrontation.

Your partners in travel,
Kathryn, Dave and Lucky
RVing Nomads

It’s a lifestyle

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